Interesting program on NPR regarding the fairly common problem of pre-frontal lobe atrophy. Ravel was coming down with it as he wrote Bolero, and the structure of the piece reflects the removal of the moderating circuitry in the pre-frontal lobe. Typically, victims will go thru a phase in which they generate amazing repetitive pattens...

I'm thinking about my "On Morals" blog, but there are numerous other blog articles in which I tend to repeat myself, with slight variat...

There are days I am so stressed out, tense and unable to sleep there is only one thing that can actually break through the constant barrage of thoughts and worries.

ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response Videos on Youtube. It is defined as "usually experienced through a relaxing tingling in the scalp and the back of the neck and can extend into the rest of the body."

Essentially it is audio stimulation of a sort. Wearing a good set of ear buds you lis...

About a year ago, I was approached one of my supervisors at work with a proposal. I had had full-coverage insurance from ABC (Anthem/Blue Cross) and was signed up with what used to be Talbert Medical and now was reborn as Health Care Partners. Everything was paid through deductions from my pay check plus an employer contribution. There were co-pays, but never anything outrageous.

A recent study out of Yale indicates that cold air really does cause colds.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30685732

Turns out that about 1 in 6 people carries the common cold virus even without an active, symptomatic cold. But when the air temperature drops, it causes a drastic drop off in immune response in the nasal passages, so the person with the low-level constant infection suddenly starts broadcasting bigtime as the virus multiplies without an effective immune res...

Just this morning, I thought about the recent finding that allegedly demonstrates statistically that about 2/3 cancers are random occurences, typically involving a mistaken stem cell differentiation. Thus, perhaps only 1/3 of cancers, overall, are preventable via diet or environmental or lifestyle. Genescient may have some answers to this, or the potential to develop them, as their general theory sounds very robust.

A person’s health should be given top priority, and this includes your reproductive health. Women, who have problems conceiving on their own, together with their male partners, need to consult with a fertility specialist to establish the cause of their problem. Fortunately, a huge percentage of infertility problems are treatable through a range of infertility treatment techniques. Depending on the nature of your case, a Hysteroscopy surgery may be recommended.What is hysteroscopy surg...

Awhile back I wrote about depression. I wasn’t really intending to revisit the topic despite the apparent suicide of actor/comedienne Robin Williams but some of the analysis I’ve seen about depression written by people who clearly have no personal experience with it has motivated me to talk about it a bit.

Depression is a physiological disease. Its severity is different from person to person who suffers it. It is not about being in a bad mood. When one is suffering from an “epis...

Some years ago, I opened the books on a local congressman, all that pesky history that really wasn't so bad, objectively. It was just that he was trying to live a lie - and still is! He comes off as the squeeky clean Mr. Conservative, when only a few decades ago he was dead in the sights of Ronny Raygun, who was bent on using California's home grown storm troupers to prevent the anarchist-libertarian faction of Young American for Freedom, headed by the later congressman,...

For most of my adult life, I’ve suffered from what I euphemistically have described as melancholy. And like most people, I mistakenly considered it to be a “mood” as opposed to a serious physiological issue. If I just did X, then I’d feel better.

When the issue began to seriously affect my life, I readily accepted “advice” that included “appreciate what you have”, “look on the bright side”, “try to reduce stress from your life”, “don’t sweat the small stuff”, etc.

Evidence of abortion-breast cancer link explodes on the Asian subcontinent

by Joel Brind, Ph.D

January 15, 2014 (NRLC) - Hot on the heels of the new systematic review and meta-analysis of the abortion-breast cancer (ABC link) in China published by Dr. Yubei Huang last November and reviewed in NRL News Today in December, comes yet another blockbuster study from the Asian subcontinent.

On Christmas Eve, a study by A.S. Bhadoria et al. of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences—&...

One of the most highly regarded anti-aging treatments is still exercising. Not only does it restore health, regain a youthful muscle tone, improves the metabolism of the body, exercising could also extend life expectancy. It is so important that no anti-aging supplement, no surgery and no single health food no matter the hype in advertisement could replace it. One could only turn on the television set and at least two channels in any cable company...

I'm 28 years old, I have 4 kids, and I am in the hospital recovering from a heart attack and the related proceedures that saved my life. Over the last two weeks, I went to the doctor, was diagnosed with high blood pressure, went back to the doctor, went to a lab, got diagnosed with high choloesterol, got put on medication for both, and then ended up in the hospital after having my 'first' heart attack.

I was playing basketball with some kids at the church, and my heart would...

A patient who was in today happened to ask if/how Obamacare was affecting my practice. Truth is it has had little impact on my day-to-day practice aside from a noticeable increase in bureaucratic hurdles & paperwork, as long as you don't count the headaches and hassles of adopting an EHR. So far. But it will starting in 2014. Part of the plan to 'slow-boil the frog' (that's not a reference to Frogboy).

Nirvikalpa Natarajan of Chennai has notched up so many formidable accomplishments that her peers in medicine find it hard to believe that she is only 30 years old.

Those accomplishments include performing hundreds of surgeries, and treating even more hundreds of patients in India, Ireland and Britain. Dr. Nirvikalpa is a practitioner of oral and maxillofacial surgery, one of only a handful of women...